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Seattle
The Roldan brothers are together again, just in time for the Seattle Sounders to head to their mother’s home country to play against the top team there. Alex and Cristian warn that the Santa Tecla players and fans will make the upcoming away trip a difficult one for Seattle.
Major League Soccer
Atlanta United fans can’t wait to see their new, shiny player Ezequiel Barco get started in MLS. Barco thanked his old club, Independiente, by making a large donation to help build new training pitches.
If you’re like us, you enjoy checking out all the new MLS kits before the season starts, but not enough to hunt down pictures of each one. MLSSoccer.com has us all covered with a recap of the new looks.
United States
Sacramento Republic FC has shown it has the fan base and ambition to successfully make the move to the MLS level, now all they need is half a billion dollars or so, and team representatives have been having ‘serious conversations’ with potential lead investors.
The FDA has approved a new blood test that is designed to detect brain injuries. By measuring two proteins released into the blood after brain trauma, researchers were able to detect brain lesions with very high accuracy. This could lead to more accurate and less expensive diagnoses for athletes.
World
Want to learn yourself some tactical soccer knowledge (and history) this morning? Check out Roker Reports ‘mythbusting’ article explaining in detail why a three- or five-at-the-back formation is not inherently defensive.
Black History Month features continue at Stars and Stripes FC, and this time they remember the ugly story from Zaragoza, Spain in 2006. Samuel Eto’o was verbally abused by racist fans so intensely that he finally tried to walk off the field, with many of his fellow players prepared to join him.
On a less depressing note, Liverpool fans are wholeheartedly praising Mohamed Salah and embracing his identity as an Egyptian Muslim. That may seem a low bar, but we’ll take it. Also, if you’ve watched Salah this season, you know what has the crowds at Anfield feeling so open-minded.